Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Game 35: New York at Toronto pregame

There is obvious hype coming into tonight’s game. Not only is it the first matchup of the season between the Blue Jays and the Yankees, but the baseball gods thought it’d be great to have it be Doc Halladay against A.J. Burnett right out of the gates.

After three years as the No. 2 behind Halladay, Burnett opted out of his deal with Toronto and signed a 5-year, $82.5 million deal with the Bronx Bombers over the winter. That left Halladay and a rotation filled with question marks. Manager Cito Gaston downplayed the “importance” of tonight’s contest.

“I think they’re all big games,” Gaston said. “I think if you win one in May, you don’t have to win one in September. I take from Day 1 as being all big games. You play them and play each day and play as hard as you can to win them. All games are big games for me. The only difference is who’s pitching tonight.”

Fair enough.

As for some news today, Gaston and GM J.P. Ricciardi both said that B.J. Ryan will not be Toronto’s closer when he returns from the 15-day disabled list, and he could “conceivably” be activated before the end of this homestand, according to Ricciardi. Downs will remain the closer. Ryan’s role is uncertain.

“Ultimately, I thinnk B.J. will get back to being a closer at some point,” Ricciardi said. “But right now Downs has got the role and it’s tough to argue with the club playing so well. That’s the thing that you respect about B.J. is he’s a team guy and he understands that.”

Casey Janssen is starting for Double-A New Hampshire tonight and Ricky Romero will follow suit tomorrow. Both are set to rejoin the rotation some time in the near future. As for Jesse Litsch (right elbow), Ricciardi said that it’s now looking like he won’t be back until June: We might as well take our time and get him right.”

It helps that pitchers Scott Richmond, Brett Cecil and Brian Tallet have pitched so well with all the other arms out. That also says something about a staff that was riddled with question marks after Burnett’s departure. Burnett is 2-0 with a 5.26. Toronto’s four rookie arms (Richmond, Cecil, Romero and Robert Ray) have combined to go 7-2 with a 2.85 ERA this year.

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7 Comments

I don’t know how wide-spread steroid use is in the major leagues, especially among pitchers. But if a pitcher was using steroids, then stopped using them, perhaps due to fear of being caught due to increased testing, do you think that might explain a sudden drop in velocity?

The Master did it again! Burnett didn’t pitch badly, but aside from a mistake to Hill, everybody hit pretty good pitches. Great game!
Steroids work by allowing the body to heal faster, which allows more intense and frequent strength and conditioning sessions. It might allow a pitcher to achieve higher velocity, but pitching is more about speed and flexibility. I think it would more likely allow a pitcher to extend his career by allowing better recovery between starts. I may be wrong. Case in point: 200 lb Brandon league throws 98 mph, and 250 lb Ryan throws 90 on a good day.

It was really nice to see AJ, love him. didn’t like the mean signs, but hey, also good to see a huge crowd at the SkyDome, ooops, Rogers Centre. If only we can get crowds like that into the future. These Jays are exciting, so exciting, its quieted the bloggers. Where are you bloggers?

Phenominal game last night. I got there late (about 3 innings in) but it was still well worth it. The atmosphere was terrific with no incidents that I saw. I especially loved the 2 guys a couple of seats away from me with the plastic syringes. The Jays should focus on re-signing Halladay this offseason before even pursuing any other guy.

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